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The purpose of the study was to analyse approaches to HIV/AIDS education adopted by the Zambian Ministry of Education (MoE), using a holistic approach and focusing on the Zambian culture. This chapter reports on an explorative qualitative study involving focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with Ministry of Education and Health officials, pupils, students, and members of the community. Qualitative analysis was applied and themes from ecological theory were used to organise and discuss data. At the macro level, there was inadequate implementation of HIV/AIDS education in schools, very few handbooks, textbooks and learners’ reading materials, and no discussion of the Zambian cultural (sexual) practices in relation to HIV/AIDS education. Inadequate laws and policies on HIV/AIDS prevention, poverty, unemployment, lack of job creation, and lack of social security were blamed for the lack of positive sexual behaviour changes. Communities had strong theological and metaphysical beliefs including witchcraft and sex with a widow, a menstruating woman or a woman who had an abortion as possible causes of HIV and incurable diseases being a curse from God. At the individual level, the knowledge of HIV/AIDS was high with radio and television being sources of information. Respondents viewed sexual cultures in communities not to have significantly changed. A majority of respondents did not use condoms; most adults continued having multiple sexual partners and women were submissive in marriages. This chapter is useful to policy makers, teachers, pupils/students, and the community, and in understanding interactions and influences of cultures on HIV/AIDS education and government's role in creating an enabling environment to sustain desirable changes.

Laban Ayiro holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship Development, an MA in International Relations, an MSc in Entrepreneurship Development, and a BEd in the teaching of Chemistry. He worked for many years as a Senior Deputy Director for Policy and Planning in the Ministry of Education and was instrumental in the development of the HIV/AIDS Education Sector Policy in Kenya. He teaches at Moi University in Kenya and his areas of specialization include Research Methods and Statistics, Entrepreneurial Management, Management Information Systems and Leadership, and Policy Studies. Dr. Ayiro is a Senior Fulbright Scholar having been on a research program at the University of Texas A&M in the United States in 2011–2012.